Vulture
Griffon vulture or Eurasian Griffon, Gyps fulvus an Old World Vulture
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Families
Accipitridae (Aegypiinae) Cathartidae

Griffon Vulture soaring

Vulture's head, Mellat Park, Tehran

Some members of both the old and new world vultures have an unfeathered neck and head, shown as radiating heat in this thermographic image.

Vulture is the name given to two groups of convergently evolved scavenging birds, the New World Vultures including the well-known Californian and Andean Condors, and the Old World Vultures including the birds which are seen scavenging on carcasses of dead animals on African plains. New World Vultures are found in North and South America, Old World Vultures in Europe, Africa and Asia, meaning that between the two groups, Vultures are found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica.

A particular characteristic of many vultures is a bald head, devoid of normal feathers. This helps to keep the head clean when feeding. Research has shown that the bare skin may play an important role in thermoregulation.^[1]

A group of vultures is called a wake, committee, venue, kettle, or volt. The term kettle refers to vultures in flight, while committee, volt, and venue refer to vultures resting in trees. Wake is reserved for a group of vultures who are feeding.^[2][3] The word Geier (taken from the German language) does not have a precise meaning in ornithology, and it is occasionally used to refer to a vulture in English, as in some poetry.

Classification[link]

Vultures are classified into two groups: Old World Vultures and New World Vultures. The similarities between the two different groups are due to convergent evolution.

Old World Vultures[link]

The Old World Vultures found in Africa, Asia, and Europe belong to the family Accipitridae, which also includes eagles, kites, buzzards, and hawks. Old World vultures find carcasses exclusively by sight.

There are 16 species:

• Cinereous Vulture, Aegypius monachus
• Lammergeier or Bearded Vulture, Gypaetus barbatus
• Palm-nut Vulture, Gypohierax angolensis
• Griffon Vulture, Gyps fulvus
• White-rumped Vulture, Gyps bengalensis
• Rüppell's Vulture, Gyps rueppelli
• Indian Vulture, Gyps indicus
• Slender-billed Vulture, Gyps tenuirostris
• Himalayan Vulture, Gyps himalayensis
• White-backed Vulture, Gyps africanus
• Cape Vulture, Gyps coprotheres
• Hooded Vulture, Necrosyrtes monachus
• Egyptian Vulture, Neophron percnopterus
• Red-headed Vulture, Sarcogyps calvus
• Lappet-faced Vulture, Torgos tracheliotus
• White-headed Vulture, Trigonoceps occipitalis

New World Vultures[link]

The New World Vultures and condors found in warm and temperate areas of the Americas are not closely related to the similar Accipitridae, but belong in the family Cathartidae, which was once considered to be related to the storks. However, recent DNA evidence suggests that they should be included among the Accipitriformes, along with other birds of prey.^{[citation needed]} However, they are still not closely related to the other vultures, and their similarities are due to convergent evolution. Several species have a good sense of smell, unusual for raptors, and are able to smell the dead they focus upon from great heights, up to a mile away.

There are seven extant species:

• Black Vulture Coragyps atratus in South America and north to US
• Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura throughout the Americas to southern Canada
• Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture Cathartes burrovianus in South America and north to Mexico
• Greater Yellow-headed Vulture Cathartes melambrotus in the Amazon Basin of tropical South America
• California Condor Gymnogyps californianus in California. Formerly widespread in the mountains of western North America.
• Andean Condor Vultur gryphus in the Andes
• King Vulture Sarcoramphus papa from Southern Mexico to northern Argentina

Feeding[link]

Vulture, getting ready to strike.

A wake (group of feeding vultures) of White-backed Vultures eating the carcass of a Wildebeest.

Vultures seldom attack healthy animals, but may kill the wounded or sick. When a carcass has too thick a hide for its beak to open, it waits for a larger scavenger to eat first.^[4] Vast numbers have been seen upon battlefields. They gorge themselves when prey is abundant, until their crop bulges, and sit, sleepy or half torpid, to digest their food. They do not carry food to their young in their claws, but disgorge it from the crop. These birds are of great value as scavengers, especially in hot regions. Vulture stomach acid is exceptionally corrosive, allowing them to safely digest putrid carcasses infected with Botulinum toxin, hog cholera, and anthrax bacteria that would be lethal to other scavengers.^[5] New World vultures have the ability to use their corrosive vomit as a defensive projectile when threatened. New World vultures also urinate straight down their legs; the uric acid kills bacteria accumulated from walking through carcasses, and also acts as evaporative cooling.^[6]

Endangered[link]

The vultures in south Asia, mainly in India and Nepal have almost gone extinct in just the last 10-15 years due to a drug called Diclofenac used as pain-killers in humans and animals ^[7] Government of India has taken very late cognizance of this fact and have banned the drug for animals. However, it may take decades for vultures to come back to their earlier population level. The same problem is also seen in Nepal where government has taken some late steps to conserve remaining vultures.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Hilty, Birds of Venezuela, ISBN 0-7136-6418-5

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vulture

• Vulture videos on the Internet Bird Collection
• Ventana Wildlife Society
• Vulture observatory in Spain
• A Vulture Restaurant

Labi Siffre (born 25 June 1945) is a British poet, songwriter, musician and singer most widely known as the writer and singer of "(Something Inside) So Strong", "It Must Be Love" and "I Got The", the sampled rhythm track which provides the basis for a number of well-known hip hop tracks such as Eminem’s breakthrough hit single, "My Name Is".

Life and career[link]

Born the fourth of five children, at Queen Charlotte's Hospital Hammersmith, London to a British (Barbadian / Belgian) mother and a Nigerian father, Siffre was brought up in Bayswater and Hampstead and educated at a Catholic independent day school, St Benedict's School, in Ealing, west London.^[1]

Jazz and Blues records provided his musical education: Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and Charles Mingus among many. Jimmy Reed and Wes Montgomery loomed large as guitar influences; Billie Holiday, Jimmy Reed and Mel Tormé as vocal influences.

Openly gay,^[2] Siffre met his partner, Peter Lloyd, in July 1964. Under the Civil Partnership Act 2004, they became legally recognized partners when the Act entered into force in December 2005.^[3]

While trying to become a full time musician, Labi worked as a warehouseman in Bethnal Green, a filing clerk at Reuters in Fleet Street and as a minicab driver and delivery man. In the early 60s, in a Jimmy Smith style trio, with Bob Stuckey on Hammond Organ and Woody Martin on drums, Labi, on guitar, played for nine months at Annie's Room, a jazz club fronted by the singer Annie Ross. He then toured as opening act and backing singer for Jackie Edwards, the Jamaican songwriter, soul and reggae star. Labi went on to form another three-piece group called Safari, playing London's Soho clubs. Then, though he didn't play folk songs, his first solo gigs came in Amsterdam at the folk club Het Kloppertje, and at the then haven of psychedelic hippiedom The Paradiso. Most of Siffre's thirty-year performing career has been as a solo artist.

In 1969, while Labi was working in Amsterdam, friends sent a tape of his songs to the DJ Dave Cash and music publishers Management Agency & Music Ltd. (MAM). Siffre soon signed a publishing and management contract with MAM. However, since the MAM Records label was not yet in operation Siffre's recordings were licensed to other labels. His first contract was with Festival Records. His recording debut in 1970 was released in the U.K. on the Pye International division of Pye Records. He had a "turntable hit" in 1970 with the single "Pretty Little Girl (Make My Day)/Too Late" which despite being heavily played on Radio Luxembourg never made it to the charts.

Six albums were released between 1970 and 1975, and four between 1988 and 1998. In the early 1970s he had UK hits with "It Must Be Love" (No. 14, 1971) (later covered by and a No. 4 hit for Madness, for which Siffre himself appeared in the video); "Crying Laughing Loving Lying" (No. 11, 1972); and "Watch Me" (No. 29, 1972).^[4] Both "It Must Be Love" and "Crying Laughing Loving Lying" were released as singles in the U.S. by Bell Records but failed to chart.

During this period Siffre toured Britain and Europe, both headlining and supporting the likes of Ike & Tina Turner, Daliah Lavi, the Hollies, Chicago, The Carpenters and The Supremes. He often appeared on television, including the series "In Concert" and "Sounding Out".

He moved to Los Angeles in 1977 and wrote with Tom Shapiro. Around this time Siffre decided to quit the music business as a performer and concentrate on writing. After nine months in California he moved back to the UK when, in 1978 two of his songs, "Solid Love" (performed by Siffre) and "We Got It Bad" (co-written and performed by Bob James) reached the UK finals of the BBC's A Song for Europe.

In December 1979 Siffre released 'One World Song' a duet with Jackie which received heavy rotation on Radio Luxembourg in the final week of that year into 1980. The lyrics of the song reflected a theme which has run throughout much of his songwriting; robust peace and harmony. Siffre had his first U.S. singles success as a songwriter when, in 1983, the cover version of "It Must Be Love" by Madness peaked in the Billboard Magazine chart at #33. Siffre appeared in the cover version's music video.

Siffre came out of self-imposed retirement from music in 1985 when he saw a television film from South Africa showing a white soldier shooting at black children. ^[5] He wrote "(Something Inside) So Strong" (No. 4, 1987),^[4] an anti-apartheid anthem, a song of defiance in the face of oppression and bigotry, a song of personal inner strength and more. The song has remained enduringly popular and is an example of the political and sociological thread running through much of Siffre’s lyrics and poetry since the single “Thank Your Lucky Star” and the album “For the Children” (1973). It won the Ivor Novello Award for "Best Song Musically and Lyrically", and has been used in Amnesty International campaigns, a television advertisement and Alice Walker's film against female genital mutilation: Warrior Marks. His stance on civil and human rights has further enhanced his reputation.

In 1990, collaborating with the South African R&B, jazz-fusion singer-songwriter and guitarist Jonathan Butler, Siffre wrote the lyrics of five of the nine songs on Butler’s album "Heal Our Land".

Searching for expression beyond the "limitations of songwriting" he wrote his first poems in 1984. Three books of his poetry have been published: "Nigger" (1993), "Blood on the Page" (1995) and "Monument" (1997). More appear on his poetry blog "Labi Siffre - Into The Light". “In one of Labi’s poems "An Audience Request" he writes - 'show us the world / rub our faces in it / show us the hurt / and our place in it' – and that’s exactly what a poet should do” … Benjamin Zephaniah

"On first reading I found many of these poems to appear direct and simple, both in statement and in mode of address, but on looking closer I discovered that they were multi-layered, often challenging their own apparent stereotypes and preconceptions, much as Blake did in his Songs of Innocence and of Experience. It is his sense of being an outsider which enables Siffre to expose and yet understand hypocrisy and prejudice. His poetry is compassionate and often succinct and aphoristic" … PQR (Poetry Quarterly Review). His play, "DeathWrite", staged at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff (1997) was televised the same year by HTV.

Beginning with “Let’s Pretend” on the 1973 album For the Children and especially in his poetry, Siffre has been and remains, a determined advocate for secularism.

For rapper Eminem's hit single "My Name Is," hip hop record producer Dr. Dre wanted to use a sample (written by Siffre and including Siffre on electric piano) of his song I Got The for the rhythm track. Siffre took exception to the lyric objecting to what he describes as "lazy writing" (in the sleeve notes of the EMI re-mastered CD of the source album Remember My Song): "Attacking two of the usual scapegoats, women and gays, is lazy writing. If you want to do battle, attack the aggressors not the victims". This tune also featured English duo Chas & Dave who were at the time prominent Session musicians.

Eminem and Dr Dre edited their song to get the sample cleared. Labi Siffre's original is available on his 1975 album "Remember My Song" (remastered on EMI CD in 2006) and on the 2006 EMI CD of re-mastered tracks "The Best of Labi Siffre". The song, "I Got The" is often incorrectly referred to as “I Got The Blues”, a title Labi rejected as being "a cliché too far". "Remember My Song" is also notable for the track "The Vulture", which enjoyed popularity on the British Rare Groove scene in the 1990s, particularly after its inclusion on the 1999 Capitol Rare 3 compilation.

Siffre released a new album, The Last Songs, on EMI in 2006.

Kanye West's 2007 album "Graduation" holds a song titled "I Wonder" in which he samples Labi Siffre's "My Song" from Siffre's album, Crying Laughing Loving Lying.

Siffre's "It Must Be Love" was also used in one of Vodafone's adverts, in late 2007. In 2008 en 2009 it was used in Holland in the Eredivisie Live campaign, for promoting the Dutch football league on television.

In 2008 Siffre's song "Down" was featured in the film JCVD.

He is listed as a prominent donor to the Atheist Bus Campaign, which is currently raising funds to place atheist adverts on London buses.^[6]

Siffre's "I Don't Know What's Happened to The Kids Today" appeared on the second season finale of the UK TV series Misfits.

Album discography[link]

• Labi Siffre (1970)
• The Singer And The Song (1971)
• Crying Laughing Loving Lying (1972)
• For The Children (1973)
• Remember My Song (1975)
• Happy (1975)
• So Strong (1988)
• Man of Reason (1991)
• The Last Songs (1998)
• Monument (Spoken Word) (1998)
• The Last Songs (Re-mastered) (2006)

Cover versions[link]

• Olivia Newton-John (English-born, Australia-raised singer and actor) covered "Crying Laughing Loving Lying" in 1975 on her gold certified MCA album titled "CLEARLY LOVE" (catalog # MCA-2148). Olivia and Labi's paths have crossed more than once over the years, as illustrated by the fact that Labi and Olivia dueted on a live version of her # 1 pop hit "You're the One That I Want" (written by John Farrar, and originally featured as a duet with John Travolta in the 1978 film adaptation of the musical, "Grease").
• Madness covered "It Must Be Love" in 1981. The song reached #4 in the UK charts and #33 in the U.S. in 1983. Labi Siffre also made a cameo appearance in the music video.
• "(Something Inside) So Strong" was covered by Kenny Rogers in 1989 (and became the title track to a hit album). The song was also covered by Vanessa Bell Armstrong in 1988 and again by a host of gospel artists as a tribute to Rosa Parks in the mid-90's. Also featured in the hit BBC comedy 'Gavin and Stacey' late 2009 where it was very successfully adapted into a Welsh chapel christening ceremony
• The Flying Pickets covered the song in their 1994 Album, The Warning.
• Michael Ball also released a cover of the song in 1996, which reached Number 40 in the UK.
• It has also been covered by Rik Waller in 2002, when it was released as a single.
• Fatboy Slim sampled Rosetta Hightower’s cover of Labi Siffre’s “A Little More Line” (from his 1970 debut album Labi Siffre) for the song “That Old Pair of Jeans” on Fatboy's 2006 album “Why Try Harder”
• Kanye West used a sample of "My Song" in "I Wonder" on his album "Graduation".
• Jay-Z sampled "I Got The" — the same song Eminem sampled for "My Name Is" — for his hit "Streets Iz Watching."
• RJD2's song "Making Days Longer", from his album Since We Last Spoke, is a cover of Siffre's "Bless the Telephone", from The Singer And The Song. Siffre is credited as writer of the original song in the liner notes.

Bibliography[link]

Poetry[link]

• Nigger (Xavier Books 1993)
• Blood On The Page (Xavier Books 1995)
• Monument (Xavier Books 1997)

Plays[link]

• DeathWrite (Xavier Books 1997)

Essays[link]

• Choosing The Stick They Beat You With (Penguin 2000)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Labi Siffre's own web site
• An interview with Labi Siffre
• The Argotist interview

Nicole Atkins
Nicole Atkins performs at La Zona Rosa during SXSW in Austin, Texas on March 18, 2010
Background information
Born	(1978-10-01) October 1, 1978 (age 33) Neptune, New Jersey, U.S.
Genres	Psychedelic, alternative, folk rock
Instruments	Guitar (Hagstrom Viking, Fender Jazzmaster, Martin D15)
Years active	2002–present
Labels	Razor & Tie Records, Columbia, Red Ink
Website	www.nicoleatkins.com

A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page. (October 2011)

Nicole Atkins (born October 1, 1978)^[1] is an American singer-songwriter. She has been compared to Roy Orbison and singers from the Brill Building era.^[2][3]

Early life[link]

Atkins was born in Neptune, New Jersey. She grew up in Shark River Hills, a middle class enclave within Neptune overlooking the Shark River.^[4][5] Atkins has cited the river (technically a bay) as a major inspiration for her music, particularly the imagery of “the river in the rain” found in the title track on her album Neptune City.^[6] She started playing piano when she was 9 and taught herself to play guitar at 13.^[7] She eschewed more popular acts of the day for musical groups her parents listened to, such as The Ronettes and Johnny Cash. She has cited The Sundays’ Harriet Wheeler as a major early influence.

She started playing in pick-up bands and doing gigs at local coffeehouses while attending St. Rose High School in the nearby town of Belmar.^[8]

Career[link]

North Carolina and New York[link]

After high school, Atkins moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to study illustration at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.^[9] She ingrained herself within the city’s independent music scene, discovering bands like Superchunk and Uncle Tupelo. She also started writing original songs and befriending other local musicians. Among other bands, she joined a supergroup in the city called Nitehawk that, at one point, had almost 30 members.^[10] Atkins spent her junior year abroad in Australia.^[11] After she returned, she joined the band Los Parasols, releasing an EP with them entitled The Summer of Love in 2002.^[12] That same year, Atkins moved to the neighborhood of Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, New York.^[8] She began performing at open mic night at the Sidewalk Café in Manhattan’s East Village. Influenced by the artists on Rainbow Quartz, the independent record label specializing in guitar heavy pop music and traditional songwriting for which she worked, she moved away from the louder rock music she’d played in North Carolina and toward the songcraft style of Wilco and Roy Orbison.^[13] She returned briefly to Charlotte, living in a wood shop^[14] and playing with several bands, most notably a group called Virginia Reel. At this time, she started writing what she termed “a mix of Americana, 60s, and indie rock.” She also recorded her EP Bleeding Diamonds.^[15]

She moved back to her parents’ house in New Jersey in 2004, working odd jobs and playing local gigs. During a regular Friday night stand at Kelly’s Tavern in nearby Neptune City, the audience kept requesting cover songs by local favorites Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi. In response, Atkins got drunk and played a tongue-in-cheek version of Bon Jovi’s “Livin' on a Prayer”. She was not asked back.^[16]

During this time, she commuted into New York by train to play gigs and maintain a connection to the city’s underground music scene.^[17] In mid-2004, Atkins and David Muller, who had played drums with Fischerspooner and The Fiery Furnaces, started working on a demo CD entitled Party’s Over. They recorded most of the album in Atkins’ parents’ house using a Casio keyboard, a ProTools rig, and a mini recorder. Drum parts were recorded at Muller’s apartment in Manhattan, with further tracks recorded at the Dietch Projects gallery in Brooklyn.^[13]

[edit] The Sea and Neptune City

In early 2005, keyboardist Dan Chen, whom Atkins knew from her days at The Sidewalk Café, approached Atkins about forming a new group. Chen told Atkins he knew of a drummer, Dan Mintzer, who might also be interested in playing with her. When the three sat down together for the first time, Chen and Mintzer already knew how to play the songs they’d heard on Atkins' MySpace page.^[10] Eventually David Hollinghurst, another friend from The Sidewalk Café, joined the band on guitar and Derek Layes was brought on as bassist. The band, now known as Nicole Atkins & The Sea, was given a residency at the small showcase bar, Piano's, and won the attention of music industry attorney Gillian Bar. Atkins' Party’s Over demo had stirred interest from heavy metal label Roadrunner Records, among others.^[18] She soon found herself in the midst of a bidding war between record labels and signed with Columbia Records in January 2006.^[19][20] In late 2006, Atkins and the Sea traveled to Sweden to record her debut album, Neptune City,^[21] at Varispeed Studios in Kalgerup and Gula Studion in Malmö with producer Tore Johansson. The album was originally scheduled for a July 2007 release, but at the behest of Columbia co-chairman Rick Rubin,^[22] it was pushed back until October 30, 2007 to accommodate re-mastering the album. It debuted at number 20 on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers chart and reached number 6 on the Heatseekers Middle Atlantic Chart.^[23]

[edit] The Black Sea and Mondo Amore

In May 2009, The Sea disbanded and Atkins started collaborating on several new tracks with drummer Christopher Donofrio, bassist Anthony Chick, and guitarist Bradley York (of the cult band Sikamor Rooney). Atkins tentatively titled this lineup "The Black Sea".^[24][25] By July 2009, Atkins had ended her professional relationship with Columbia Records.^[26]

In January 2010, Atkins and The Black Sea started recording new material at Brooklyn's Seaside Lounge studio with producer Phil Palazzolo, with whom Atkins had previously worked during sessions for A.C. Newman's second solo album, Get Guilty.^[27] Several other musicians joined Atkins in the studio to record the tracks for what would become her second album, Mondo Amore, including guitarist Irina Yalkowsky and bassist Jeremy Kay. Along with drummer Ezra Oklan, Yalkowsky and Kay would form the core lineup of the The Black Sea with whom Atkins would tour in support of Mondo Amore. In June 2010, Atkins signed with New York-based independent label Razor & Tie.^[28] The label released Mondo Amore on February 8, 2011.

Other work[link]

In 2008, Atkins was cast as the voice of the mother in director Geoff Marslett’s animated sci-fi comedy film “Mars.”.^[29][30] On September 9 of that year, she released a four track EP of cover songs called Nicole Atkins Digs Other People's Songs, which included the tracks: "The Crystal Ship" (The Doors), "Dream a Little Dream of Me" (The Mamas & the Papas), "Under the Milky Way" (The Church) and "Inside of Love" (Nada Surf). In 2009, Atkins' backing vocals were featured prominently on AC Newman's second solo album, Get Guilty.^[31]

Atkins also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers.^[32]

When not on the road, she lives in Brooklyn, New York.^[33]

Discography[link]

EPs[link]

• 2006: Bleeding Diamonds, EP (Columbia)
• 2008: Nicole Atkins Digs Other People's Songs, EP (Columbia)

Albums[link]

• 2007: Neptune City (Columbia)
• 2011: Mondo Amore (Razor & Tie)

with Los Parasols[link]

• 2002: The Summer of Love (EP)

Compilations[link]

• 2008: The Hotel Café Presents Winter Songs Epic

(Atkins contributed a cover of Billy Hayes' and Jay Johnson's Blue Christmas)

• 2009: Scott Walker – 30 Century Man

(Atkins contributed a cover of Scott Walker's The Seventh Seal

Awards and nominations[link]

2002

• Asbury Music Awards Winner: Top Female Vocalist
• Asbury Music Awards Winner: Best Solo Act
• Asbury Music Awards Winner: Song of the Year – "Neptune City"

2005

• ASCAP Foundation winner: Sammy Cahn Award – "Neptune City"

References[link]

External links[link]

• Nicole Atkins – official website.
• Nicole Atkins & the Sea on Myspace
• Nicole Atkins on YouTube
• Nicole Atkins on Twitter

Gregory Allyn Palast
Born	(1952-06-26) June 26, 1952 (age 60) Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Author, journalist
Website
GregPalast.com

Gregory Allyn Palast (born June 26, 1952)^[1] is a New York Times-bestselling author^[2] and a freelance journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation^[3] as well as the British newspaper The Observer.^[4] His work frequently focuses on corporate malfeasance but has also been known to work with labor unions and consumer advocacy groups. Notably, he has claimed to have uncovered evidence that Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, and Florida Elections Unit Chief Clay Roberts, along with the ChoicePoint corporation, rigged the ballots during the US Presidential Election of 2000 and again in 2004 when, he argued, the problems and machinations from 2000 continued, and that challenger John Kerry actually would have won if not for disproportional "spoilage" of Democratic votes.^[5]

Palast spoke at a Think Twice conference held at Cambridge University^[6] and lectured at the University of São Paulo.^[7] He lives in New York City. Palast is originally from Los Angeles, and was educated at the University of Chicago,^[8] and eventually earned an MBA.

Selected stories[link]

Presidential elections[link]

Palast's investigation into the Bush family fortunes for his column in The Observer led him to uncover a connection to a company called ChoicePoint. In an October 2008 interview Palast said that before the 2000 Election ChoicePoint "was purging the voter rolls of Florida under a contract with a lady named Katherine Harris, the Secretary of State. They won a contract, a bid contract with the state, with the highest bid."^[9]

After subsequently noticing a large proportion of African-American voters were claiming their names had disappeared from voter rolls in Florida in the 2000 election, Palast launched a full-scale investigation into voter fraud, the results of which were broadcast in the UK by the BBC on their Newsnight^[10] show prior to the 2004 Election. Palast claimed to have obtained computer discs from Katherine Harris' office, which contained caging lists of "voters matched by race and tagged as felons.^[9] "

Palast appeared in the 2003 documentary film, Florida Fights Back! Resisting the Stolen Election, along with Vincent Bugliosi, Former L.A. Deputy D.A. & Author of " The Betrayal of America", and including footage from the 2001 Washington D.C. Voter Rights March^[11] with founder Lou Posner. Palast also appeared in the 2004 documentary Orwell Rolls in His Grave, which focuses on the hidden mechanics of the media.

Palast alleges that Andrés Manuel López Obrador — and not Felipe Calderón — won Mexico's last presidential election.^[12]

In May 2007, Palast said he'd received 500 emails that former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove exchanged through an account supplied by the Republican National Committee. Palast says the emails show a plan to target likely Democratic voters with extra scrutiny over their home addresses, and he also believes Rove's plan was a factor in the firing of U.S. Attorneys.^[13]

After Palast was invited by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to appear on his Air America talk show to discuss, among other things, election fraud, the pair teamed up to find out if democracy was in a better state in 2008. In their report, which was published in October 2008 in Rolling Stone, they concluded that the 2008 Election had already been stolen. "If Democrats are to win the 2008 election, they must not simply beat John McCain at the polls -- they must beat him by a margin that exceeds the level of GOP vote tampering", Palast and Kennedy summarized.^[14]

To combat the extensive acts of voter suppression that Palast and Kennedy uncovered, the duo launched a campaign called Steal Back Your Vote,^[15] which features a website and free downloadable voter guide / adult comic book.

Long Island Lighting Company[link]

In 1988, Palast directed a U.S. civil racketeering investigation into the nuclear power plant builder Long Island Lighting Company. A jury awarded the plaintiffs US$4.8 billion; however, New York's chief federal judge reversed the verdict. The racketeering charges stemmed from an accusation that LILCO filed false documents in order to secure rate increases. LILCO sought a dismissal of these charges on the grounds that Suffolk County lacked authority under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and that the allegations of a history of racketeering did not qualify as a continuing criminal enterprise.^[16]

[edit] Exxon Valdez

Palast has also taken issue with the official story behind the grounding of the Exxon Valdez, claiming the sobriety of the Valdez's captain was not an issue in the accident. According to Palast the main cause of the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 was not human error, but an Exxon decision not to fix the ship's radar in order to save money. The Raytheon Raycas radar system would not have detected Bligh Reef itself - as radar, unlike sonar, is incapable of detecting objects under the waterline of a ship. However the radar system would have detected the "radar reflector", placed on the next rock inland from Bligh Reef for the purpose of keeping boats on course via radar.

Palast argues the original owners of the land, the local Alaska Natives tribe, took only one dollar in payment for the land other than a promise not to pollute it and spoil their fishing ground.

UK "LobbyGate" Scandal[link]

In 1998, working as an undercover reporter for The Observer, Palast, posing as a US businessman with ties to Enron, caught on tape two Labour party insiders, Derek Draper and Jonathan Mendelsohn, boasting about how they could sell access to government ministers, obtain advance copies of sensitive reports, and create tax breaks for their clients.^[17]

Draper denied the allegations.^[18] At Prime Minister's Question Time July 8, 1998 British Prime Minister Tony Blair claimed that all the specific claims had been investigated and found groundless "every allegation made in The Observer has been investigated and found to be untrue".^[19]

Vulture funds[link]

Starting in 2007 Palast published a series of investigations on what aid groups and investors call "vulture funds." Vulture funds are a private equity or hedge funds where companies or people buy the debt of poor countries and sue in courts to recover the funds, often at the expense of aid and debt relief. Prime Minister Gordon Brown commented on the practices saying "We particularly condemn the perversity where Vulture Funds purchase debt at a reduced price and make a profit from suing the debtor country to recover the full amount owed - a morally outrageous outcome".^[20]

In 2011, the UK made permanent the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act 2010, which severely restricts the activities of vulture funds in the UK.^[21]

[edit] Newsnight

Since 2000, Greg Palast has made more than a dozen films for the BBC programme Newsnight with the Investigations Producer Meirion Jones, which have been broadcast in the UK and worldwide. In addition to the films on US elections they have investigated oil companies, the Iraq War, the coup against Hugo Chávez, and the vulture funds which target the poorest countries.

Alternative Ending to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows[link]

Following the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in the seven part series by JK Rowling, Palast released an alternative ending to the series, as told to him by Rowling.^[22] Differences in this ending to the one that made it into the book include Voldemort reuniting with his parents, Harry Potter getting a post at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Harry's wife permanently transforming into a bird. Neither JK Rowling nor her affiliates have made any claim regarding the validity of this article.

Criticism[link]

In An Open Letter to Greg Palast on Peak Oil^[23] Richard Heinberg offers friendly criticism of Palast who conflates the "amount of oil left" with "peak (maximal) flow rates" for oil, the latter being key to Peak Oil.

Left-wing MP George Galloway also criticised Palast by claiming he "conflates meetings, truths and half-truths, statements taken out of context to produce a toxic smear which would be actionable in the country he claims to work in" ^[24]

Bibliography[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Greg Palast

Books[link]

• The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. London: Pluto Press. 2002. ISBN 0-452-28391-4. 
• Democracy and Regulation. London: Pluto. 2002. ISBN 0-7453-1943-2. 
• Armed Madhouse. New York, NY: Dutton. 2006. ISBN 0-525-94968-2. ^[25]
• Vultures' Picnic. New York: Dutton. 2011. ISBN 978-0-525-95207-7. ^[26]

Films[link]

• American Blackout
• Big Easy to Big Empty [Part 1],^[27] Part 2^[28]
• Bush Family Fortunes^[29][30]
• The Election Files^[31][32]
• Palast Investigates^[33][34]

Newsnight[link]

• "Vulture Funds attack Liberia 2010"^[35]
• "Vulture Funds attack Zambia 2007"^[36]
• "Bush and the Vultures 2007"^[37]
• "US Election 2008 (2008)"^[38]
• "Tim Griffin (2007)"^[39]
• "US Election 2004 (2004)"^[40]
• "US Election 2000 (2001)"^[41]
• "Bush and the Bin Ladens (2001)"^[42]
• "Bush dances with Enron (2001)"^[43]
• "Chevron and Ecuador (2007)"^[44]
• "Secret US plans for Iraq's oil (2005)"^[45]
• "Iraq - Jay Garner's story (2004)^[46]
• "Chavez and Oil (2006)"^[47]
• "Chavez and the Coup (2002)^[48]
• "Stiglitz (2001)"^[49]
• "Microsoft (2000)"^[50]

See also[link]

• 2004 United States election voting controversies
• International Monetary Fund
• World Bank
• World Trade Organization

References[link]

External links[link]

• GregPalast.com - 'The Writings of Greg Palast' (official website)
• GregPalastOffice Greg Palast's YouTube page
• Election 2004 Shoplifting the Presidency? - interview on Democracy Now!
• Scoop.co.nz - 'OPEC & The Economic Conquest Of Iraq', Greg Palast
• New York Inquirer Interview with Greg Palast
• Palast article 'On the 2006 Mid-Term Elections'
• "A Sleeper Cell of Rove-Bots" - May 24, 2007 interview
• Greg Palast Tracks Vulture Funds Preying on African Debt - video report by Democracy Now!
• "Greg Palast "Vulture's Picnic"". C-Span. December 16, 2011. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/event/200266&timeline. Retrieved February 4, 2012.